Reading telephones brings hope for better speech and literacy

MBOMBELA – Playing “telephone, telephone” might be seen as a silly game by some, but occupational therapist Estelle Buitendag has taken it to a whole new level. She implemented a reading telephone project at St Peter’s School and Laerskool Bergland at the beginning of August, and it is already showing magnificent results.

The reading telephone is a hollow elbow-shaped plastic pipe. Children put one end to their mouths and the other to their ears so that they are able to hear themselves while reading.

“They have started to self-correct already,” a very excited Buitendag said. “Children do not know how to read properly anymore because they cannot hear that they are wrong. This reading telephone has made a significant change in their reading potential.”

Since the learners’ auditory and visual perceptual skills are also addressed, the telephones are also used by speech therapists and remedial teachers.

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Buitendag got the idea off of a Facebook post and immediately went to the principals of the two schools. When she got the green light, Michael Gunn-Henderson and Nadia Barkhuizen from BUCO helped her to manufacture the telephones at less than R10 per phone.

It is Buitendag’s greatest wish that other schools also implement this initiative. “It is a lot of fun for the children and they learn a lot.” Keneilwe Mashile, a grade one learner at St Peter’s, said that she enjoyed the telephone very much. “It’s nice to talk and read at the same time and helps me nicely,” Mashile said.

Teachers also had great praise for the telephone. “It also helps a lot with the sounding of words,” grade one teacher, Kim de Beer said. It is a truly wonderful initiative to help junior learners better themselves and lay a solid foundation for their future.

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